Jim McKelvey

Jim McKelvey
Born	James Morgan McKelvey Jr. Template:Birth year and age
Birthplace	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Entrepreneur, glassblower, author
Known for	Co-founding Block, Inc. (formerly Square), founding LaunchCode, founding Third Degree Glass Factory
Education	Washington University in St. Louis
Awards	Distinguished Alumni Award (Ladue Horton Watkins High School, 2012)

James Morgan McKelvey Jr. (born 1966) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, glassblower, and author, best known as the co-founder of Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.), the financial services and mobile payment company he started with Jack Dorsey in 2009. The origin story of Square has become one of the more distinctive in American technology: McKelvey conceived the idea after losing a sale of his handblown glass art because he could not accept a credit card in his St. Louis studio. A serial entrepreneur who has started multiple businesses across diverse industries, McKelvey has remained rooted in St. Louis throughout his career, investing in the city's economic development through ventures such as LaunchCode, a nonprofit aimed at creating pathways into technology careers, and Third Degree Glass Factory, a public-access glass art studio. He served as an independent director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis beginning in January 2017 and later became chairman of that board. In 2025, McKelvey and his spouse joined the Giving Pledge, committing to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Early Life

James Morgan McKelvey Jr. was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Ladue Horton Watkins High School, which later recognized him with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012.

McKelvey developed interests across a wide range of disciplines from an early age, a pattern that would define his career trajectory. His later ventures spanned glassblowing, technology, publishing, and economic development, reflecting an approach he has described in interviews as building businesses around original ideas rather than copying existing ones.

Throughout his life and career, McKelvey has maintained a deep connection to St. Louis. In various public appearances and interviews, he has spoken about his commitment to the city and his belief in its potential as a center for innovation and entrepreneurship. This local focus has been a distinguishing characteristic of McKelvey's career, as he chose to remain in the Midwest rather than relocate to Silicon Valley, even after co-founding a major technology company.

Education

McKelvey attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied economics and computer science. His connection to the university deepened significantly over the years as he became a major benefactor. In 2016, Washington University announced the renaming of its engineering school as the McKelvey School of Engineering, in recognition of a transformative gift from McKelvey. The naming reflected both McKelvey's financial support and his long-standing involvement with the university's engineering programs.

Career

Early Ventures and Glassblowing

Before entering the technology industry, McKelvey pursued a diverse range of business ventures. He has described himself as a serial entrepreneur who started multiple companies, and has characterized his career path prior to Square as something of a "dumpster fire" — a self-deprecating reference to the varied and sometimes unsuccessful nature of his early efforts. By his own account and according to a 2020 Forbes profile, McKelvey started six businesses over the course of his career.

One of McKelvey's enduring enterprises is the Third Degree Glass Factory, a public-access glass art studio located in St. Louis. Founded by McKelvey, the facility has served as a community resource for glass art, offering public demonstrations, classes, and studio space for artists. The glass factory celebrated multiple years of operation and became a recognized cultural institution in the St. Louis area. McKelvey's identity as a practicing glassblower has remained central to his public persona and has been frequently cited in media coverage as an unusual background for a technology entrepreneur.

It was McKelvey's glassblowing work that directly precipitated the founding of Square. In 2009, McKelvey lost a $2,000 sale of a piece of glass art because he was unable to accept American Express cards in his studio. The frustration of losing the sale prompted McKelvey to consider the broader problem of payment processing for small businesses and independent sellers, who were often excluded from traditional credit card acceptance systems due to high costs and complex merchant account requirements.

Co-founding Square

McKelvey brought the problem of mobile payment acceptance to Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, whom he had known since Dorsey was a student. Together, they conceived of a small device that could plug into a smartphone's headphone jack and read credit card swipes, enabling virtually anyone to accept card payments. The company was incorporated as Square, Inc. in 2009.

Square's initial product — a small, white, square-shaped card reader — became iconic in the payments industry. The device was distributed free of charge to merchants, with Square generating revenue through transaction fees. The simplicity of the product and the low barrier to entry proved transformative for small businesses, independent contractors, farmers' market vendors, and other sellers who had previously been unable to accept card payments.

The company grew rapidly from its St. Louis and San Francisco roots. McKelvey played a key role in the company's early development and product design. As the company scaled, it expanded into a broader suite of financial services including point-of-sale systems, business loans, payroll services, and eventually consumer-facing products through the Cash App.

According to a 2023 article in Foundr magazine, one of the defining episodes in Square's history was its competition with Amazon, which launched a competing card reader product. McKelvey has spoken and written about how Square survived this competitive threat from one of the world's largest companies. Amazon eventually discontinued its card reader, while Square continued to grow. McKelvey attributed Square's survival to what he has called the "Innovation Stack" — a series of interlocking innovations that, taken together, created a business that was difficult for competitors to replicate.

Square went public in November 2015, and in December 2021, the company changed its corporate name to Block, Inc. to reflect its expanded portfolio of businesses. McKelvey has served as a director of the company.

Author: The Innovation Stack

McKelvey distilled his experiences at Square and his thinking about entrepreneurship into a book titled The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time, published in 2020. The book examines how entrepreneurs can build businesses that solve problems no one has addressed before, using Square's battle with Amazon as a central case study. McKelvey argues that truly original businesses create layered sets of innovations — an "innovation stack" — that are nearly impossible for larger competitors to copy in their entirety, even when individual components can be replicated.

The book received attention in the business press and positioned McKelvey as a commentator on entrepreneurship and innovation. He has given numerous talks and interviews on the subject, emphasizing the distinction between copying existing business models and creating genuinely new solutions.

LaunchCode

In 2013, McKelvey founded LaunchCode, a nonprofit organization based in St. Louis with the mission of creating pathways to economic opportunity through technology education and job placement. The organization provides free coding education and apprenticeship programs, matching aspiring technologists with companies seeking to fill software development and other technical roles.

LaunchCode was born out of McKelvey's observation that St. Louis and other cities faced a paradox: technology companies reported difficulty hiring qualified developers, while many residents lacked access to the training needed to fill those roles. The organization sought to bridge this gap by providing intensive coding courses and then placing graduates in paid apprenticeships with partner companies.

The program expanded beyond St. Louis to other cities. In 2019, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation provided funding to support LaunchCode's expansion into Kansas City. LaunchCode was recognized by the Riverfront Times as one of the best things to happen to St. Louis.

Invisibly and Media Ventures

McKelvey also founded Invisibly, a technology company focused on the media and publishing industry. According to a 2020 Forbes profile, McKelvey was investing millions of dollars in the venture, which he described as an effort to address fundamental problems in how journalism and digital publishing are funded. The company sought to create a new economic model for content creators and publishers in an era of declining advertising revenue and the dominance of large technology platforms in digital advertising.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

In December 2016, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis announced that McKelvey had been appointed as an independent director to its board of directors, effective January 2017. McKelvey subsequently became chairman of the St. Louis Fed's board. The appointment placed McKelvey in a position of influence over regional monetary policy deliberations and banking oversight, reflecting his stature as one of the most prominent business figures in the St. Louis region.

Views on Entrepreneurship and St. Louis

Throughout his career, McKelvey has been an outspoken advocate for entrepreneurship and for the potential of cities outside the traditional technology hubs of Silicon Valley and New York. In interviews, he has articulated his belief that St. Louis possesses the ingredients necessary for a thriving technology and innovation ecosystem, and he has backed this belief with personal investments in the city's infrastructure, education, and economic development.

In a 2022 interview with Inc. magazine, McKelvey cautioned against taking advice uncritically from successful entrepreneurs, noting that survivorship bias can distort the lessons drawn from business success stories.

In 2025, McKelvey discussed public safety in St. Louis in a two-part interview series, expressing his view that the city could become one of the safest in the world and outlining ideas for achieving that goal.

Personal Life

McKelvey resides in St. Louis, Missouri, where he has maintained his home and businesses throughout his career despite the success of Square drawing him into the broader technology world. He continues to practice glassblowing and maintains his involvement with Third Degree Glass Factory.

In 2025, McKelvey and his spouse joined the Giving Pledge, the philanthropic commitment initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in which signatories pledge to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetimes or in their wills. The announcement placed McKelvey among a select group of billionaires who have made public commitments to large-scale philanthropy.

McKelvey's philanthropic interests have centered on economic opportunity, education, and the St. Louis community. His founding of LaunchCode and his support for Washington University's engineering school reflect a focus on creating infrastructure for upward mobility through technology and education.

Recognition

McKelvey has received recognition from multiple organizations for his entrepreneurial and civic contributions. In 2012, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Ladue Horton Watkins High School.

His founding of LaunchCode was recognized by the Riverfront Times in 2014 as one of the best things to happen to St. Louis, acknowledging the organization's impact on the city's technology workforce and economic development.

McKelvey was featured in the MIT Technology Review for his work in technology and entrepreneurship.

The renaming of Washington University's engineering school as the McKelvey School of Engineering in 2016 represented one of the most visible forms of recognition of his contributions, associating his name permanently with one of the university's major academic divisions.

His appointment to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in 2017, and subsequent elevation to chairman, reflected his standing in the regional and national business community.

McKelvey's book, The Innovation Stack, received coverage in business publications and further established him as a public figure in discussions of entrepreneurship and business strategy.

In media profiles, McKelvey has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Foundr, St. Louis Magazine, and other publications. Forbes included him in its coverage of notable billionaires, citing his unusual background as a glassblower turned technology co-founder.

Legacy

McKelvey's most significant contribution to the technology and business landscape has been the co-founding of Square (now Block, Inc.), which fundamentally changed the way small businesses and individuals process payments. By creating a simple, accessible mobile card reader and the accompanying software infrastructure, Square opened electronic payment acceptance to millions of sellers who had previously been excluded from the system. The company's growth into a multi-faceted financial services firm, encompassing lending, payroll, and consumer banking through the Cash App, extended its impact well beyond its original product.

Beyond Square, McKelvey's founding of LaunchCode has had a measurable impact on technology workforce development. The organization has placed thousands of individuals into technology careers, providing free training and apprenticeship pathways in multiple cities. The LaunchCode model has been cited as an example of how the technology industry can address workforce gaps while simultaneously creating economic opportunity for people who lack traditional computer science credentials.

McKelvey's commitment to St. Louis as a base for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic activities has made him one of the most prominent figures in the city's business community. His investments in local institutions — from Third Degree Glass Factory to Washington University's engineering school to LaunchCode — have contributed to St. Louis's identity as an emerging technology and innovation center. His advocacy for the city, including his discussions of public safety and economic potential, reflects an ongoing effort to shape the trajectory of his hometown.

His book, The Innovation Stack, contributed a framework for understanding how startups can compete against much larger incumbents, and the concept of layered, interlocking innovations has entered the vocabulary of entrepreneurship education and business strategy discourse.

McKelvey's joining of the Giving Pledge in 2025 signals a commitment to channeling the wealth generated by his entrepreneurial career into philanthropic efforts, adding to a legacy that encompasses technology, education, civic engagement, and the arts.